Star Wars and The Hidden Fortress: A Comparison

Yes, it's that time of the week already. I'm back! This week I'll be talking about the film that inspired Star Wars and drawing up parallels between the two. You could probably tell that from the title. Anyhow, I found this really interesting and hopefully you will too! I always give a disclaimer that my blogging is really long, but this one's a bleedin' essay. You better have a lot of time on your hands.

So what is this Hidden Fortress thing anyway?

The Hidden Fortress is a film directed by Akira Kurosawa, a director famed works like Seven Samurai, which is heralded as one of cinema's great masterpieces. It's also next on my list because admittedly I'm yet to see it. 

VERY MILD SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!

The film itself follows the misadventures of Matishichi and Tahei, who are two farmers (Or 'bedraggled peasants' as the Wikipedia article somewhat unflatteringly describes them. Wikipedia is the absolute best source you can use when researching a topic and will not in any way contain falsehoods that were written by dude named Ken for a laugh). They intended to fight with the Yamana clan - but being the brilliant geniuses that they are they arrive too late and are taken as Akizuki prisoners. After escaping, they manage to uncover a fortune and a Hidden Fortress (Title Card!) home to the Princess Yuki of the Akizuki clan and her General played by Kurosawa's main man, Toshiro Mifune. They then become bundled up in an attempt to escape into Hayakawa Country, where Princess Yuki can revive her crest.

Big paragraph.

Can't get a proper picture up for 

copyright reasons, but this is the sort of

thing we're going for.

Comparisons

Upon reading the initial plan for Star Wars, one will notice the plotlines are extremely similar. Luke initially started out as a tough General character who assists the Princess Of Alderaan in escaping from inside The Empire. This was not George Lucas at his most creative, if you pardon my saying so. Of course, he adapted this plot into a more original story that became one of the most beloved fanchises by everyone ever (And me :D). The thing is, though, that some of The Hidden Fortress' influence still remains...

SLIGHTLY BIGGER SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!

"These are not the Akizukis you are looking for."

A comparison that stuck in my mind after it'd been pointed out to me was when the smuggled fortune is being searched for by a group of guards at a border to another part of the country (Forgive me if this is not quite geographically accurate*). To get past them, the General takes a bit of the gold to the guards saying he found it, and demands a reward. He becomes such a nuisance in asking for a reward, the guards eventually shove who they are looking for right out of their sites for being pests. It cannot just be me who notices this is pretty similar to when good ol' Mr Kenobi uses the force to let himself past the Stormtroopers on Tatooine.

Another point worth noticing is that both films choose to tell the story from the point of the 2 'lowliest' characters - Mitishichi and Tahei/C3PO and R2D2. Lucas himself has stated that this is the main thing he took from The Hidden Fortress in the interview that comes with the DVD. I'm still a classy researcher. What amuses me about this is imagining if C3PO and R2D2 were entirely driven like greed like M and T... "I don't give a DingleSchmidget about any princess I just want some sweet, sweet SPACE DOLLARS." I abhor putting 'space' in front of things to make them sound science fictiony but in this case it's funny so yeah.

A final thing I wanted to mention will be shorter, which you may well be thanking the heavens for. This is that the Lance Battle between The General and fellow warrior Tadokoro seemed to have an impact on the Lightsaber battles in Star Wars due to the way they were choreographed. 

Congratulations! You made it to the end!

*My constant use of brackets is just abuse at this point ._.

Rounding off + interaction

Well, I really enjoyed that! Not so much humour but really interesting to talk about so I hope I kept you engaged enough. What I'm gonna ask you guys to do this week is to tell me if you like this sort of thing; film reviews etc. I'm a fan of film and would be happy to do them every once in a while, and this was one of my favourite things to write about so far. Bye for now!

-Dexter